Polish Poachers, British Fish and BBC Blockhead

Our local BBC tv programme last night carried a piece about the owner of a couple of fishing lakes coming into conflict with the race laws. He had been told to take down signs he'd put up warning European immigrants (I assume they were Poles) not to take fish out of his lakes. This was racist, apparently.

Last year there were reports of immigrants taking large numbers of fish out of lakes and rivers to eat, since back home it was an acceptable practice. Those doing it here presumably do not realise it is against the law and bad for fish stocks. There was an article in the angling press about the problem. The BBC had also reported on it in 2007.

It didn't come as a surprise to me, because my brother-in-law, who lives in the north-east, is a keen angler and Treasurer of a local angling club. He told me early this year that the Poles in particular were taking vast numbers of fish from rivers and lakes.

I'm sure that once it is made clear that this activity is against the law most of the people doing it will stop. What annoyed me about last night's programme, however, was the presenter's pitching of the story as an example of British bad treatment of migrant workers.

The story finished with him asking some professor of law "what does this say about our treatment of immigrant workers?" Which was nothing to do with it. He should have asked "What does this show about the attitude of migrant workers to our fish?" But, there again, he's not blessed with a great intellect.